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In Reply to: RE: Audiophile Snake Oil posted by Freo-1 on April 24, 2024 at 13:23:27
that's products sound sterile and clinical...
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
Follow Ups:
Benchmark gear is pro-audio quality--and I do not mean that in a good way. I mean it in the sense of, good enough for the mass market, but well-built and reliable.
Bob Ludwig is now retired, but he had learned that the incoming electrical power was so important so that in the early 1990s when he built his Dream Studio in Maine, he obtained a battery the size of a home refrigerator so he could cut his studio off the grid and run everything on battery power.
Oh, and Bob Ludwig also wired up his signal paths with Transparent Audio Cables.
I think that Bob Ludwig knew a lot more about Critical Listening than Mr. Benchmark does.
Now, I have been involved in recordings since 1968, and professionally since 1982. I have been an audio and music journalist since 1984. I cheerfully admit that there are times that a cable sounds more "different" than better.
And, of course, cable effects are usually dwarfed by the interactions of the loudspeakers with the room acoustics, and the interactions of the loudspeakers and the power amplifiers.
I assure you that Bob Ludwig had those boxes checked off. His studio had the largest-scale (in depth) RPG diffusion panels ever made up to that time, and his loudspeakers were (IIRC) bi-amped with Cello amplifiers. Or perhaps even tri-amped. Whatever, that stack of amps (in a separate enclosure that was its own HVAC zone) could upon demand summon 3 kW.
Bob mastered at least a dozen recordings for me, and it was always a thrill.
john
BTW, I had not known that Snake Oil came from my home town of Providence. But, there were reasons this state was known as "Rogues' Island."
Liking or not liking a given product has nothing to do with the argument they are making. The nonsense pushed about power cords and cables FAR exceed the claims made.
Many of the esoteric claims made by these providers are counting on the emperor's new clothes effect. Funds are better spent on hardware (speakers, amps, etc.) than thousands on esoteric wire.
" Don't look back. Something may be gaining on you"
Satchel Paige
But who are you or I to say what someone hears with a pair of speaker cables or a power cord? This whole hobby is perpetrated on subjectivism, as it should be. No two people hear the same thing. If a power cord enhances my subjective experience in my listening room and I can afford it, who is harmed? If you try it and hear no difference, you don't buy it. Again, no one is harmed.
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
... because I want to.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Based on my over half century of experience as an audiophile I find the article to be truthful and cogent. Back in the late 1980s when my hearing as tested by a professional audiologist was still excellent I managed to borrow a large collection of different speaker cables for a comparison. My wife who was also an audiophile helped with the comparisons. As long as the cables had good terminations any differences were negligible.Don't even get me started on the folly of expensive power cords.
I dream of an America where a chicken can cross the road without having it's motives questioned.
Edits: 04/25/24
for these 'Snake Oil' Products; is that is a lot easier to fool a man, than to get him to admit that he's been fooled.
Edits: 04/26/24
nt
Back in the late 1980s when my hearing as tested by a professional audiologist was still excellent I managed to borrow a large collection of different speaker cables for a comparison.
When the EDC varied little among brands. Not so today.
Don't even get me started on the folly of expensive power cords.
Most likely a similar lack of current experiential evidence.
Having your hearing tested prior to expressing opinions on audio equipment is the actual red herring in this argument. Even people with diminished hearing can discern differences (improvements?) in gear (and this includes cables). I have had tinnitus in my left ear for several years now and I still know what sounds good vs what does not.
Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill
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